BOSTON – Oh, what it must have been like for Red Sox fans to watch the famed “teammates” Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dominic DiMaggio fuel a 13-game winning streak in 1948, and another epic 15-game run with the same cast of characters two years before that.
Here we are, 78 years later, and Fenway Park – not to mention all of Red Sox Nation – is positively revved up watching the current team reel off one of those streaks that will still generate memories years from now.
The fun continued on Sunday, as the ridiculously hot Red Sox capped a four-game sweep of the American League East-leading Rays with a 6-1 victory that stretched their winning streak to 13 games.
With that, interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad tied the 1948 team for the second-best run of wins in team history and pulled to within three of surpassing the ‘46 AL pennant winners for the best winning streak for a franchise that started in '01.
“Wow, that's incredible,” said Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin. “I mean, especially a historic organization like this. You hear something like that, and to feel like you're a part of history is super cool.”
This week – with six more home games to go; three against the Orioles and another three against the Blue Jays – is turning into must-watch territory.
“Fans were electric for us this weekend,” said Sunday’s winning pitcher, veteran righty Sonny Gray, who churned out his ninth straight quality start. “It was giving me chills. It was really special.”
It was Gray who on June 18, after his team was swept by the Blue Jays for an eighth loss in 10 games, uttered this: “We’re just not a good team right now. That’s a fact.”
It is also a fact that things have changed in the most dramatic fashion possible since then.
“We weren't a good team, and that was a fact,” Gray said. “But we've always had it in us, and we are a good team [now].”
There’s a major difference between the Sox of 2026 and those of 1946 and ‘48 besides the look of the uniforms.
Those teams from the middle of last century were wire-to-wire juggernauts. In 1946, the team roared to a 104-50 record before losing to the Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series. Two years later, they won 96 games, only to lose a Game No. 155 tiebreaker to Cleveland.
This 2026 edition?
Less than a month ago, they were just trying to stay afloat. After blowing two late-inning leads in a losing series in Denver against the cellar-dwelling Rockies, the Sox went home with a 32-46 mark to face the Yankees and were 15 1/2 games out of first place.
The next day, running on fumes after a delayed flight home, they opened a four-game series against the Yankees, which they went on to sweep. It was the start of that 18-2 record that will bring them to the ballpark on Monday trailing the Rays by six games in the East.
At 50-48, they are in possession of the third Wild Card spot, nipping on the heels of the Guardians for the second and just 4 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the top Wild Card seed (and second in the division).
A more apt comparison to this year would be the 1988 Red Sox, who won 12 in a row and 19 out of 20, and 24 straight wins at home after an All-Star break switch of managers from John McNamara to Joe Morgan.
Alex Cora was let go following a 10-17 start to this season. At the helm of the current madness is Tracy, who stayed patient for the elusive winning streak that finally happened.
“It’s pretty incredible and it's a fun ride, and we want to keep it going,” said Tracy.
What has keyed the turnaround?
A team that has pitched all season but struggled to hit for months has started to hit. A team that hardly ever came back in games they trailed at any point by multiple runs has pulled off some signature comebacks during this surge, most memorably on Saturday, when Wilyer Abreu’s fourth homer in two games brought Boston all the way back from a 6-3 deficit to Tampa Bay and on the way to a 7-6 triumph.
As Abreu rounded first, he hollered to his teammates in Spanish. The loose translation was, “Are you crazy?”
Crazy is probably the best way to describe going from near the bottom of the AL to playing their way right back into the race in just a matter of weeks. Boston has swept four straight series and five of its last six since the long journey home from Denver.
In the third inning on Sunday, the Sox broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run rally that didn’t include a single hit. It was just the fifth time they’ve scored three runs without a hit in the Expansion Era, and the first since April 14, 2015.
“We have to take advantage of everything that is given to us,” said first baseman Willson Contreras. “Sometimes you don't have to hit to create runs. You have to get on base and take advantage of everything. If we keep overfocusing on small things, big results will come.”